Here and below, the term “managing” is understood as meaning, in particular, the archiving of the data (that is to say the practice of putting the data into a persistent data memory), the reproduction (display) of the data and the deletion of the data from the data memory as well as the process of sorting and finding particular data items from the data memory in accordance with predefined criteria (browsing).
Here and below, the term “processing” is understood as meaning, in particular, the changing (editing/preparation) of the data.
The data to foe managed and processed in the medical facility comprise, in particular, patient data, tasks (works/tasks) or task lists (work lists) fox the staff in the medical facility and medical image data.
Such medical data are increasingly being managed in a computer-aided manner by server systems, in particular so-called information systems. An information system regularly comprises                one or more data memories, for example in the form of a Storage Area Network (SAM),        one or more associated data servers,        at least one relational database which is implemented in a database server,        and generally one or more further servers in which methods for accessing the database and processing the data are implemented.        
Different information systems have become established for the different data types in the medical field. A “hospital information system” (HIS) for managing and processing the patient data and a “radiology information system” (RIS) for scheduling radiological examinations, assisting with the diagnosis of medical image data and documenting the findings are therefore usually used in the environment of a medical facility, for example a clinic. In addition, the IT structure of a hospital generally comprises a so-called “picture archiving and communication system” (PACS) for archiving and transmitting medical image data on the basis of the DICOM standard and an “advanced visualization (AV) system” which provides server-assisted functions for visualizing volume data, in particular dynamic volume rendering.
In this case, the server systems referred to above are generally parallel to one another. This requires a high procurement and maintenance expenditure which can hardly be managed, in particular for small medical facilities or other facilities with a comparatively small financing volume.
The above-described complex IT structure of a modern medical facility also has only comparatively poor scaling properties. Therefore, such an IT structure can usually be adapted to relatively great changes in the volume of data to be processed and archived and/or in the required computing power only with a very large amount of effort.
Personal computers (PCs) have previously been predominantly used as user devices or terminals (conventionally referred to as clients) of such an IT structure, these PCs often being in the form of so-called “thin clients” which obtain a large part of the required computing power from a connected server. However, recently, there is an increasing desire to also use mobile microcomputers, such as smartphones, tablets or PDAs, as the user device.
Another problem of conventional information systems in the medical environment is that the front-end software of these systems is often oriented specifically and rigidly to the management and processing of particular data types. This results in the front end for each information system having to be specifically programmed and maintained. This in turn makes it difficult, in particular, to integrate novel user devices such as smartphones and tablets in the clinical workflow since the diversification of the software components which is associated with the corresponding adaptation of the respective front ends can be managed only with great expenditure in terms of the production and further development expenditure.
As an alternative to conventional client-server architectures, so-called cloud solutions have become increasingly established in recent years. In this case, a “cloud” is understood as meaning a data processing device which is provided and operated by a cloud operator (“cloud vendor”) independent of the user. In this case, the “cloud vendor” provides a multiplicity of users with the hardware and possibly the software of the cloud as a service as part of a license agreement (subscription). Depending on the scope of the services provided, a distinction is made between                a use pattern which is referred to as an “infrastructure as a service” (IaaS) and in which the user is provided only with computer hardware (computers, networks and memories) of the cloud, while the user himself is fully responsible for the software operated in the cloud,        a use pattern which is described as a “platform as a service” (PaaS) and in which the user is offered the computer hardware together with a programming and runtime environment based thereon from the cloud, with the result that the user himself is responsible only for the application software (applications) implemented in this programming and runtime environment, and        a use pattern which is referred to as “software as a service” (SaaS) and in which the user is also provided with particular application software from the cloud.        
Depending on the user group to which the respective cloud is addressed, a distinction is also made between                a so-called public cloud whose services can be used by everyone, and        a so-called private cloud which is accessible only to users of a particular organization, in particular a particular corporation.        
For each user of a public cloud, the access authorizations to particular hardware and software components of the cloud are controlled by the subscription assigned to the user. As a result, public clouds are usually “multi-client capable” (multi-tenant). This refers to the ability to keep data, user management and computing operations strictly separate for users with a different subscription. A user of the public cloud therefore cannot look at the data, user management and computing operations of another user with a different subscription and also cannot influence these data.